The Library of the Congress has one of world's largest collections of Slavic items. Jefferson's library, bought by Congress in 1815, contained a number of books about this distant region. However, Slavic items were hardly collected for the next century. The purchase of the Yudin Collection in 1906 signaled a turning point in collecting Slavic items with the help of many Russian-born scholars including Babine, Vinokouroff and Yakobson. Since that time, Slavic collections grew rapidly and constantly, passing through several stages and becoming more reader oriented. Projects initiated by these scholars reshaped the methods of Slavic collection development as well as led to the preservation of unique and priceless materials.

Speaker Biography: Evgeny Pivovarov is a Fulbright Fellow and instructor at the Russian Academy of Sciences.